a wheelchair, Lucian Zacarias was all poise and dignity—his clothes impeccably fitted, his salt-and-pepper hair trimmed, his face clean-shaven. “I have a whole Melior Group team for security, and two nurses to tend to my every need.”
He was staying in his city apartment for the night. He said it was because he had early appointments with specialists and doctors, but I was pretty sure he was just leaving so we would have his gigantic house to ourselves.
“And me.” Olivia, Lucian’s sister and Dot and Charlie’s mom, came out of the nearest room. She stopped behind her brother and rested her hands on the back of his chair. “What am I? Chopped liver?”
Lucian rolled his eyes, but humor crinkled at the edges. “Yes, Olivia, you’re a damn saint. I don’t know what my team of well-paid, highly skilled people and I would do without you.”
I stifled a laugh.
Olivia whacked him on the back of the head. “Ungrateful little shit. Do you have any idea what you put us all through while you took the world’s longest nap?”
“Nap? I was in a coma! And isn’t it politically incorrect to hit people in wheelchairs?”
“Whatever. Come on, wheelie, Henry’s meeting us for dinner. I don’t want to be late.” She pushed his chair forward, giving us a stern motherly look as she passed. “Don’t get into too much trouble.”
Lucian yelled over his shoulder, “Get into as much trouble as you can. In fact, try to trash the place! We have all these contractors around. I wouldn’t mind an excuse to keep them longer and get the kitchen remodeled!”
They bickered all the way to the parking garage door, where two burly Melior Group agents picked Lucian’s chair up and carried him down the stairs. The contractors Lucian had mentioned were working on making the mansion more accessible, but most areas still didn’t have ramps installed.
“Come on, let’s get a drink.” Josh tugged me in the direction of the kitchen.
A few hours later, I was sitting on the kitchen bench facing the dance floor, my third cocktail in hand. The bright orange drink perfectly matched Dot’s outfit.
She was in tangerine from head to toe. She should’ve looked like a traffic cone or a Teletubby, but she didn’t. The high-waisted pants and crop top fit her small frame so perfectly I had a feeling they were tailored. Paired with bold black jewelry and dangerous black platform heels, they made her look like a supermodel.
She was tearing it up on the dance floor while I chatted with Charlie and a couple of his friends about their theses. We’d gotten into a lively discussion about Variant abilities and how they seemed to evolve with other advancements—like the ability to control electronics.
I spotted Alec moving slowly along the edge of the room but kept my focus on the conversation, animatedly waving my drink in the air to emphasize my point. A tiny bit spilled, and when I looked for a spot to set the drink down, I glimpsed blonde hair near the dining table. Leaning up against the wall was Dana.
She was dressed in all black, no hint of the revealing top she’d looked like sex in the last time, and she was alone, her arms crossed, her gaze focused on something in the crowd of dancers. I glanced in the same direction but couldn’t figure out what she was looking at.
“Eve?” Charlie brought my attention back to the conversation.
“Sorry!” I blurted out. “I just have to go do something.”
I knocked back the rest of my drink and discarded the empty glass on the counter. It didn’t take me long to spot Tyler.
In jeans and a casual shirt—with rolled-up sleeves, of course—he stood at the other end of the island, speaking to a colleague from Bradford Hills Institute’s Admissions Department. Where the last party had been mostly college kids, this one had a mix of ages and, according to Dot, fewer attendees. It still looked like a concert crowd to me, but either way, it was definitely mellower.
As I approached, Tyler took a sip of his scotch, and his eyes found mine. He smiled and pulled me into his side. After he introduced me to his colleagues, I excused us and pulled him a few steps away.
“I have a question,” I said close to his ear. His intelligent gray eyes looked at me lovingly, but I didn’t actually want to voice my question.
I pressed my lips to his cheek, letting the kiss linger for a moment as I transferred a